Abstract/Details

Les femmes Mayas et le developpement: Genre, rapports sociaux, rapports de sexe au Yucatan (Mexique)

Nadal, Marie-Jose.   Universite de Montreal (Canada) ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  1997. NQ26706.

Abstract (summary)

Cette these traite des femmes mayas de la zona henequenera du Yucatan qui travaillent dans des unites de production feminines creees et encadrees par l'Etat mexicain, dans le cadre de programmes de developpement rural.

Chez les Mayas, la creation de cooperatives feminines est une innovation qui n'a pas ete facilement acceptee. En effet, le type de travail qu'on y trouve--sous le controle de l'autorite exterieure, beneficiant de credits gouvernementaux et s'executant dans des lieux et avec des moyens de production habituellement reserves aux hommes--contrevient aux normes relatives a la differenciation sexuelle.

Notre objectif a ete d'analyser les consequences de ces changements profounds sur les rapports sociaux et les rapports de sexe, en emettant h'hypothese que le travail collectif fonctionnant a l'exterieur du cadre familial constitue une transgression par rapport a la definition du genre, car ce type de travail bouleverse les representations que les Mayas se font de la masculinite et de la feminite. Dans cette transgression, les frontieres entre les genres sont brouillees et la relation qui consiste a adapter le sexe individuel au genre est perturbee.

L'analyse des changements sociaux consecutifs a la mise en place des cooperatives de femmes demontre que, malgre la generalisation du travail salarie des femmes, l'activite productive des societaires est la seule qui bouleverse les regles de la division sexuelle du travail. Les societaires et leurs epoux sont les seuls a devoir se recreer une conformite sociale, dans la communaute, par un jeu de rectification des inadequations entre la norme et la marginalite, lequel met en lumiere les mecanismes de deconstruction/reconstruction des definitions du genre au cours desquels les autochtones interiorisent certains aspects des ideologies dominantes vehiculees par l'autorite exterieure ou par les medias, mais aussi, au cours desquels ils se retournent vers les caracteristiques les plus conservatrices de leur culture.

L'analyse comparative du pouvoir chez les hommes et chez les femmes met en evidence la maniere dont le genre intervient dans le phenomene d'acceptation/resistance, caracteristique de l'ethnicite. Contrairement aux hommes, les femmes rurales refusant le systeme des elections dans leurs organismes de travail, parce que le modele exogene de l'autorite qu'on veut leur imposer contrevient a la definition autochtone du genre feminin. En revanche, elles s'appuyent sur l'ideologie du sacrifice et de la dette, propre a la pensee maya, pour legitimer l'autorite de la presidente. L'analyse de l'exercice du pouvoir met donc en lumiere la revitalisation de pratiques heritees du passe; cette revitalisation resulte du fait que les femmes mayas n'ont pas l'habitude de la sphere politique et des elections, et que, si elles veulent s'adapter au developpement, elles refusent neanmoins de se renier en tant que femmes mayas.

A la fin de ce travail, nous avons formule le constat que les programmes Femmes-paysannes souffrent d'un triple echec. D'une part, parce que la majorite de la population feminine rurale en est exclue; d'autre part, parce que ces programmes ne permettent pas aux societaires d'obtenir une remuneration decente et, enfin, parce qu'ils les maintiennent sous le controle d'un appareil repressif. Toutefois, la creation d'unites de production feminines a permis la constitution d'un espace social feminin porteur d'une identite sociale nouvelle, au sein duquel les femmes experimentent la possibilite de sortir du cadre de l'unite domestique et des relations de parente, et eprouvent ensemble des formes originales de cooperation et de sociabilite. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Alternate abstract:

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This thesis deals with Mayan women from the zona henequenera of Yucatan who work in women's production units created and supervised by the Mexican State, within the framework of rural development programs.

Among the Maya, the creation of women's cooperatives is an innovation that has not been easily accepted. Indeed, the type of work found there--under the control of external authority, benefiting from government credits and carried out in places and with means of production usually reserved for men--contravenes the relative norms to sexual differentiation.

Our objective was to analyze the consequences of these profound changes on social relations and gender relations, by putting forward the hypothesis that collective work operating outside the family framework constitutes a transgression in relation to the definition of gender. , because this type of work upsets the representations that the Maya have of masculinity and femininity. In this transgression, gender boundaries are blurred and the relationship of adapting individual sex to gender is disrupted.

The analysis of the social changes following the establishment of women's cooperatives shows that, despite the generalization of paid work for women, the productive activity of the members is the only one that upsets the rules of the sexual division of labor. The members and their spouses are the only ones who have to recreate a social conformity, in the community, through a game of rectifying the inadequacies between the norm and the marginality, which highlights the mechanisms of deconstruction/reconstruction of the definitions of gender during which the natives internalize certain aspects of the dominant ideologies conveyed by the external authority or by the media, but also, during which they return to the most conservative characteristics of their culture.

The comparative analysis of power in men and in women highlights the way in which gender intervenes in the phenomenon of acceptance/resistance, a characteristic of ethnicity. Unlike men, rural women refuse the system of elections in their work organizations, because the exogenous model of authority that we want to impose on them contravenes the indigenous definition of the feminine gender. On the other hand, they rely on the ideology of sacrifice and debt, specific to Mayan thought, to legitimize the authority of the president. The analysis of the exercise of power therefore highlights the revitalization of practices inherited from the past; this revitalization results from the fact that Maya women are not used to the political sphere and elections, and that, if they want to adapt to development, they nevertheless refuse to deny themselves as Maya women.

At the end of this work, we have formulated the observation that the women-peasant programs suffer from a triple failure. On the one hand, because the majority of the rural female population is excluded; on the other hand, because these programs do not allow members to obtain a decent remuneration and, finally, because they keep them under the control of a repressive apparatus. However, the creation of female production units has allowed the constitution of a female social space bearing a new social identity, within which women experience the possibility of leaving the framework of the domestic unit and kinship relations. , and experience together original forms of cooperation and sociability. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Indexing (details)


Subject
Cultural anthropology;
Womens studies
Classification
0326: Cultural anthropology
0453: Womens studies
Identifier / keyword
Social sciences; French text; Mexico; Yucat\'an
Title
Les femmes Mayas et le developpement: Genre, rapports sociaux, rapports de sexe au Yucatan (Mexique)
Alternate title
Maya Women and Development: Gender, Social Relations, Sex Relations in Yucatan (Mexico)
Author
Nadal, Marie-Jose
Number of pages
325
Publication year
1997
Degree date
1997
School code
0992
Source
DAI-A 59/03, Dissertation Abstracts International
Place of publication
Ann Arbor
Country of publication
United States
ISBN
978-0-612-26706-0
Advisor
Meintel, Deirdre
University/institution
Universite de Montreal (Canada)
University location
Canada -- Quebec, CA
Degree
Ph.D.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
French
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
NQ26706
ProQuest document ID
304406019
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/docview/304406019/abstract